"Before we landed I ascertained from my cautious conductor that the present Purgatorial Island which we had just left, was not the one always resorted to, nor indeed the one that was consecrated by St. Patrick..."
"The position of [Saints Island] agrees with the description of Coppinger and Jones, written two hundred years ago; and it is probable, that when by the direction of the Council Board, Sir William Stuart invaded and uprooted this nest of superstition…
"It is said, that the passage into Purgatory was first found in [Saints Island] ; but it being near the shore, and a bridge from the main land into it, which gave the people free and ready access..."
"In the county of Donnegal, at the distance of four miles from Lough Earn, and in the midst of mountains and morasses, extending every way to a considerable distance..."
"No record was kept of all the years that passed after the coming of the Danesmen till the Archbishop of Armagh sent a band of canons regular of the rule of Augustine..."
"On every side of the island lay the watery fields, winding themselves into inlets and across bays. Great sheets of water, unbroken save by a group of smaller islands that rode like ships that had run to seed and blossom in tropical seas, with the…
