"Her masther stood be her side"
"So the three av thim mounted the wan horse"
"'Kape from me,' says the divil"
Initial: "The Defeat of the Widows"
AN' PHAT DOES THIM LETTERS SHPELL?
The Widdy Mulligan
The Widdy O'Donnell
Missis McMurthry
"OULD ROONEY AN' PADDY BLAGGARDIN' THE CONSTHABLE IVERY FUT O' THE WAY."
"A good bargain they made av it"

[Illustration: "Howld on, we 'll argy the matther"]

IRISH WONDERS

IRISH WONDERS.

THE SEVEN KINGS OF ATHENRY.

[Illustration: Initial: "The Seven Kinds of Athenry"]

It was a characteristic Irish ruin. Standing on a slight elevation, in the
midst of a flat country, the castle lifted its turreted walls as proudly
as when its ramparts were fringed with banners and glittered with helmets
and shields. In olden times it was the citadel of the town, and although
Athenry was fortified by a strong wall, protecting it alike from predatory
assault and organized attack, the citadel, occupying the highest ground
within the city, was itself surrounded by stronger walls, a fort within a
fort, making assurance of security doubly sure. Only by treachery,
surprise, or regular and long-continued siege could the castle have been
taken.

The central portion was a large, square structure; except in size, not
differing greatly from the isolated castles found in all parts of Ireland,
and always in pairs, as if, when one Irish chieftain built a castle, his
rival at once erected another a mile or so away, for the purpose of
holding him in check. This central fort was connected by double walls, the
remains of covered passages, with smaller fortresses, little castles built
into the wall surrounding the citadel; and over these connecting walls,
over the little castles, and over the piles of loose stones where once the
strong outer walls had stood, the ivy grew in luxuriant profusion,
throwing its dark green curtain on the unsightly masses, rounding the
sharp edge of the masonry, hiding the rough corners as though ashamed of
their roughness, and climbing the battlements of the central castle to
spread nature's mantle of charity over the remains of a barbarous age, and
forever conceal from human view the stony reminders of battle and blood.

The success of the ivy was not complete. Here and there the corner of a
battlement stood out in sharp relief, as though it had pushed back the
struggling plant, and, by main force, had risen above the lea