Folklore and History in Ireland. 289
The dates for the election and swearing in of the town officers varied. As a rule the new Mayor took office on Michaelmas Day. There is more divergence of dates for their election. Midsummer claims most, either the Day or the Monday after it, as at Kilkenny and Carrickfergus. Dublin's Lord Mayor and Aldermen were elected in April, the Portreive on St. Matthew's Day — to take office on St. Canice's Day. Galway's Mayor and Bailiffs were chosen at the " Short Council " on the last day of July. Waterford's Mayor was chosen by the Council on the Monday after the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and took his " corporal oath on the Holy Evangelists yearly on the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel."
The growth of the towns is in itself a proof of the need that existed for outside stimulus. They were the outposts of invading culture, and the antagonism between town and country is a factor to be noted. While country districts clung undisturbed for the most part to the old ways, the towns ostentatiously followed the new. The place-name Irishtown preserves the memory of legislation that restricted intercourse between the English, or Angli- cised citizens, and the " mere," that is the pure or unmixed, Irish. ^ These, for fear of treachery, were, as a rule, debarred from holding any civic post, and business with them had in certain cases to be conducted outside the walls. Even marriage with an Irishwoman was enough in some places to bring a loss of privileges to the adventurous husband. Cork was " so compassed with rebellious Neighbours," Fynes Moryson reported in 1603, that the citizens " of old
or were suggested by others. The N.E.D. gives sovereign as an obsolete name for the chief magistrate, more general in Ireland than in England.
'Spencer used the term " meer Irish" to denote the pure bred Irish. He also wrote of " meer English" in the same sense, but the '* meer Irish" has been quoted as an instance of English contempt, and used to embitter feeling between the two countries.
