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HOWTH. IRELAND'S EYE IN THE DISTANCE.
Shall round her airy chamber float
And with the whispering winds and
streams
Attune to Nature's tenderest note
The tenor of her dreams.
And oft at tranquil eve's decline
When full tides lip the Old Green
Plain,
The lowing of Moynalty's kine
Shall round her breathe again.
*******
And when the fierce De Danaan ghosts
At midnight from their peak come
down,
And all around the enchanted coasts
Despairing strangers drown;
When mingling with the wreckful wail
From low Clontarf's wave-trampled
shore
Comes booming up the burthened gale
The angry sand-bull's roar.
Or angrier than the sea, the shout
Of Erin's hosts in wrath combined
When terror heads oppressions rout
And Freedom cheers behind.
Then o'er our lady's placid dreams
When safe from storms she sleeps,
may steal
Such joy as will not misbeseem
A queen of men to feel.
*******
And here hard by her natal bower
On lone Ben Edar's side we strive
With lifted rock and sign of power
To keep her name alive.
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ST. FINTAN'S CHURCH, HOWTH.
Irish Peat for the Navy.
A PARLIAMENTARY correspondent says: "Mr. Wyndham and the Irish Government have a most important project in hand, which may bring great results to Ireland in the Immediate future. This is nothing less than the utilization of the peat which is deposited in such enormous quantities in different parts of Ireland, as a fuel for household and steam-raising purposes.
Experiments have been in progress for some time, and a firm at Dumfries is actually manufacturing a species of fuel from peat. The Irish Government intends to set up or aid a manufactory on a considerable scale, and Mr. Wyndham personally is full of enthusiasm for the scheme.
The peat when taken from the bogs will be compressed and dried, so as to get rid of the water. It will then be pulverized and mixed with a proportion of coal dust and crude oil, with a little clay to act as a cement for the whole, enabling it to be compressed into briquettes, which will be burned as we bum coal.
An experiment made on these lines on a very small scale about ten years ago was completely successful, and it is plain that if the same results can be obtained when working with machinery, a new industry will be established in Ireland which may give profitable employment to an immense number of persons for an indefinite time.
The new fuel is to be tried for naval purposes, and it may prove almost as good a substitute for coal as the crude oil, which Lord Selborne states has been so successful during the past year.
Confirmation of this report comes from a correspondent at Cork, who writes: "A most interesting and important project is at present on foot 'or the utilization of Irish peat, and in this connection experiments are being carried out on several turf bogs in Ireland for the purpose of testing the value and quality of the product from a commercial point of view. The enterprise has its origin in London, the promoters being English capitalists desirous of developing the Irish peat industry. A prominent London engineer, interested in the scheme, has written to a well-known priest In Cork, Rev. P. J. Bowling, to obtain from him any available data that would be likely to help forward the project."
It is calculated that Ireland could produce an output of peat equal to about three-quarters of the British coal supply if the extensive turf bogs abounding in the country were only properly utilized and worked to the best advantage. Cubes of turf, measuring six inches by six inches are being cut, dried, and weighed as samples of the output obtainable in different localities, with a view to having operations begun in the near future in the most favorable districts.
Machinery for the compression of peat is being brought into use in various places in the United States where peat bogs are found.
