"But we have not yet reached the island. We are still on the landing-stage looking up the long reaches of the lake (it covers and area of twenty square miles), noting the high, bleak, purple mountains which surround it, and the number of pretty…
"Oh fare thee well, Lough Dearg,
Shall I ever see you more?
My heart is filled with sorrow
To leave thy sainted shore.
Until life's days have passed away
With pleasure shall I dwell
On the happy days I spent with you
Lough Dearg, fare…
"Throughout all the perversions and confiscations [of the Reformation], however, the Church never relinquished her hold upon the one grey rock which then was Station Island..."
"The original name of the lake was Finn-loch - the Fair Lake. Those who have visited Lough Derg in the summer and looked on its natural beauties may well approve of the name given by our Pagan ancestors..."
