Page:The Gael Vol XXII January to December 1903.djvu/140

May, 1903.

ITHIN easy reach of Dublin and so close as to be included in a one day's expedition, lies a series of interesting architectural and antiquarian studies, one at least of which is too little known to the average Dublin citizen. The names of Kilbarrack and St. Fintans are, to be sure, borne in on his mind by their appearance on the tram tickets of the electric service which now engirdles old Ben-Edar, but we wonder how many of the crowds who throng the hill in the Summer months have ever visited or have ever heard of the existence of the great Howth cromleac, the reputed "Aideen's Grave," on which Ferguson has written his beautiful poem which reproduces so admirably the atmosphere of the Hill he knew and loved so well.

The first of these—Kilbarrack—the Church of Berach, a disciple of St Kevins, is rather bleakly situated on the sea shore before one reaches the promontory of Howth, and except for some circular and pointed arches, presents no very striking architectural features.

Here, however, is still pointed out the grave of the notorious Higgins, the "Sham Squire," the proprietor of the "Freeman's Journal" during the Rebellion of '98, and who was buried here in 1804. The small broken stump at the extreme left of the photograph is now all that is left of a ponderous tabular tomb which recorded in the most extravagant language the eminent merits of the deceased. The popular opinion of the man, judging from the destruction of the monument, seems to have been strangely different and Mr. Fitzpatrick even doubts whether the corpse itself had escaped similar kind attentions at the hands of medical body-snatchers. Nearby, too, is the grave of Margaret Lawless, mother of the patriot peer Lord Cloncurry.

Continuing our Journey to Howth and ascending the main street we come to St. Mary's Abbey, said to have been originally erected early in the eleventh century by Sitryg the Dane, but