The Chapel Lane
Off the centre of the 11ain Street, this road passed through Colonel Fitzustace
Foster's demesne. On the corner of the entrance to the Lane was a high ten foot wall bounding the Colonel's mansion, Swords
House. On the corner fronting the
ain Street was a big double leaved bronze gate in orna'iented design of metal tracing.
It was ten feet high and about twelve or fourteen feet wide. Inside the gates was a picturesque lodge with Gothic lattice-paned
windows. There was a curved short avenue leading to a four storey mansion in brick, faced
with white cut stone.
There were steps leading up to the front door and an area basernt surrounding the ground floor. it
was a large square building with at least thirty or forty rooms. The grounds were planted with ornamental flowers and shrubs
and a grove of evergreen Irish oak fronting the boundary wall on the lain Street. . ll the demesne was planted v.-Lth or aTeental
shrubberies and forest trees including a large walled in orchard and
• garden and elaborate stables and farm
buildings at the rere, some distance from the house.
In the other corner of the Lane entrance, there was a harness maker's workshop, a low two storey
house with a very large window on the ground floor. This window had a wide sill about a foot off the ground, which was a famous
resting place for out of work labourers and other loiterers. The harness maker had his bench all along the inside of the window
where he plied his needles on the harness and had a corialete view of all that happened in the pain Street, as he faced the
window from his seat in the middle of the bench. He was lame in the legs as a result of some illness, but was a very intelligent
and interesting character. He could relate stories and tales, took a keen interest in the politics of the John Redmond Home
Haile Party, had some conjuring tricks which he displayed to mystify the young boys who were priveleged to enter his workshop.
Many discussions and debates took place around his bench while he plied his needles in the leather.
There was a big pile of straw in one corner of the shop which he used to stuff head collars and straddles with, and an odd
out of work labourer was allowed to have a nap there on occasions.
On Sundays when the shop was closed, a select party played half-penny twenty five card games, or
2d. nap on Sunday evening in the harness maker's workshop. The Lane up as far as the Church was bounded by the high wall of
the demesne on one side and a lower boundary wall on the other side. There were a long row of wallnut trees drooping over
the top of the demesne wall, and boys used to knock down some of the walinuts with stones or sticks when the nuts were nearly
ripe.
The Church was fronted with two large double gates and two side gates. Just inside the gates, there
were two high bushes of hawthorn, one with white blossoms and the other with red blossorns, and the Graveyard surrounded the
Church sides and for a long distance behind the Church. The Church was a simple building with a small spire and steps in front
to the organ loft. There were three doors in front.
There was a shrubbery of tall cypress trees on one side of the Church outside the Graveyard. On the
other side of the Lane, flanking the Church, there was in the demesne, a grove of huge tall elm trees and on their top branches
there were big rookeries of crows with up to thirty or forty nests. The trees were very high and higher than the Church.
This often reminded. me of the Rookery described in Dickens's David Cooperfield. When in the Church,
you could hear the cawing of the crocus as they flew around their nests and in March you could watch them carrying twigs in
their bills to repair their nests. Although the elm grove was forbidden ground, we boys often crossed the wall and sometimes
we would catch a young crow which fell out of the nest. There was a pathway across this grove to the Parish Priest's house,
with a wicker door in the wall near the Church.
This was a privilege given by the Colonel, who was a Roman Catholic, to facilitate the Priest coming
to say Mass. This pathway was flanked with laburnan, lilac and other ornamental shrubs growing under the elm trees, and a
little wood bridle over a small stream before you entered the grounds around the Priest's house. It was a beautiful grove
and the ground was all studded with primroses, bluebells and violets.
The wall bounding the Churchyard had a number of iron rings in the wall at intervals, to tie up the
ponies and horses which brought the people in outlying districts to Mass in various designs of cars, gigs, traps, outside
cars, etc. A man named Jack Salmon, who was a cattle drover and general messenger in the town, had the self appointed task
of minding the horses during Mass time. He was there outside the Church with his ash plant and made an honest few shillings
in tips from the farmers around the country who drove to mass
