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| ROAD TO MAAM, CO. GALWAY. -This name would seem to be a corruption of the Gaelic word Madhm, pronounced Maum, or Maam, under consideration, mountain pass or chasm in rocks; and there are many places so called, with descriptive affixes, throughout the south and west of Ireland. The Maum, or Maam, under consideration, is situated in the Connemara district of the county Galway, and the road and bridge that lead to it through the great mountain gorges are shown in the sketch, with the inevitable "Irish jaunting car" in the middle ground, where the roadway over the bridge turns abruptly. In this locality are grouped some of the grandest works of nature. "In front, flank and rear," says Prof. Addey, in "Picturesque Ireland," "open four principal glens. One, enclosing the lake of Ballinahinch, opens southward on Roundstone and Bertraghboy; Glen Inagh, cradling its black waters under the tremendous precipice of Maam, down which the stream that feeds Lough Inagh falls 1,200 feet, opens the gorge of its grand prison on the east. Kylemore forms a parallel pass along the north, near the margin of the Killery, and, on the west and south, the ravine whose torrent waters Clifden, gapes toward the Atlantic." This, surely, is a region for Irishmen to be proud of-where the heavens seem to rest on the aspiring mountain peaks, and the cataract thunders, and the great golden eagle soars above the clouds "in giddy revelry," Magnificent Ireland! Superb even in thy chains! |
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