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| CATHOLIC CHURCH, WESTPORT, CO. MAYO. -There is hardly a more picturesquely situated town in Ireland than Westport, with portions of which we have already dealt in other sketches. The picture shows the Catholic church, massively and handsomely built, and capable of accommodating a large number of worshippers. Attached to it are a parochial residence and schoolhouse. The population of Westport is overwhelmingly Catholic. It is one of the most prosperous places in Mayo, and formerly used to be much more so. Near it-in fact lying between the town and the quay -is the fine demesne of the Marquis of Sligo, head of the Browne family, who have flourished in the county since Elizabethan days. One scion of the house, the Hon. Dennis Browne, who figured in '98 and afterward, was one of the greatest scourges of the poor people that ever cursed Ireland. He had the heart of a wolf and the cruel ferocity of a tiger. On the bench, he would have been a Jeffreys and a Norbury combined. His name has even yet a sound of terror to the peasantry, and many a tale is still told of his hatred and malignity around the turf-lighted cabin hearths in the long winter nights. It is not on record that this local despot ever did a kind act for any human being. His one service to humanity was the hanging of a fellow-savage, George Robert Fitzgerald, bravo and duellist. |
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