The Rev¹. John McGrath was priest of the parish of Drumsna at the time of which we write. This parish contains the post town of Drumsna and the country adjacent, including the town-land and demesne³ of Ballycloran. At this time the spacious⁴ chapel⁵ which now stands on the hill about two miles out of Drumsna had not been built, and Father John’s chapel was situated⁶ on the road from Drumsna to Ballycloran. Near this he had built himself a small cottage in the quasi-Gothic style, for Father John was a man of taste; he rented also about twenty acres of land, half of this being on the Macdermots’ estate.

The Rev. Mr. McGrath is destined⁷ to appear somewhat prominently in this history, and I must therefore be excused in giving a somewhat elaborate description of him.

He had been, like many of the present parish priests in Ireland, educated in France; he had been at college at St. Omer, and afterwards at Paris, and had officiated as a curé there; he had consequently seen more of French manners and society than usually falls to the lot of Irish theological students in that capital. He was, also, which is equally unusual, a man of good family, and from his early avocations⁸ was more fitted than is generally the case with those of his order, to mix in society. He possessed⁹ also very considerable talents, and much more than ordinary acquirements, great natural bonhommie, and perpetual good temper. He was a thorough French scholar, and had read the better portion of their modern literature. On leaving Paris he had gone to Rome on a begging expedition, to raise funds for building chapels¹⁰ in his own country, and there too he had been well received; and from thence he had returned to take possession of a

分享到：