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| ABBEY RUINS, YOUGHAL, CO. CORK. -Youghal (Gaelic), Eochaill (Four Masters) signifying Yew wood, stands at the mouth of the Blackwater river, which contracts to the width of about half a mile near the town, but back of it inland, forms a spacious harbor which can accommodate ships of good size. Some of the old yew trees, from which the town is called, are still in existence. King John incorporated the place about the year 1209 and it has now about 6,000 inhabitants. It was plundered by the Earl of Desmond, because of its English affiliations in 1579. Throughout the long Geraldine War, it experienced many vicissitudes. In 1645, the Stuart forces under Lord Castlehaven, were repulsed from its walls by the Parliamentary garrison. It was from this place that Oliver Cromwell embarked for England, leaving Ireland an apparently hopeless wreck in 1650. William III's forces occupied it without resistance in 1690. Sir Walter Raleigh, the brilliant English adventurer and colonizer, was mayor of Youghal in 1588-89. His house, plain Elizabethan, stands near the ruins of one of the abbeys founded by the Fitzgeralds shown in the sketch. In its parlor the first tobacco was smoked, and in its garden the first potato was planted in Ireland. Many of the monastic ruins of Youghal have recently been restored. |
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