"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…
"Year by year the Gaelic heart turns thither, as the magnet to the north, and pilgrims come across the division of the seas. The sighs of dead generations are heavy in the air, and the very stones are steeped with their prayers..."
"[Lough Derg] is one of the loneliest places on earth. Its boulder-strewn shores, thirteen miles in circumference, seem to have retained all their original wildness..."
"The repetition of the baptismal vow [before St. Brigid's Cross] is a reaching back again towards baptismal innocence and is the usual ritual of retreats..."
