make a motion of putting it aside, as if there was not sufficient room
for two such organs, and call out with a kind of snuffle: "Pass, Brian!"

The late Mgr. O'Laverty, in his "History of the Dioceses of Down and
Connor," says: "From a government official survey in 1766 there were
fifteen families in Castlewellan, of whom two only (Hagans and
O'Donnells) were Catholics." Up to that date there must have been,
during this century, a considerable clearance of the Catholic population
from the best land of this district, for I should say--judging from King
James's Army List and other authorities--that the Magennises (who, with
the MacCartans, were the chief territorial families of the old race in
Down) still held land in the neighbourhood up to the end of the
seventeenth century. As still further showing this, it will be found
that "Eiver Magennis of Castlewellan" was one of the members for the
County Down in what Thomas Davis truly describes as "The Patriot
Parliament" of 1689.

The learned historian of Down and Connor gives an interesting account of
the only Norman colony of any extent in the province of Ulster. I have
already spoken of this. Notwithstanding the very small Norman
admixture, in the main the Catholics of the North are the most
pure-blooded Celts in Ireland. And even in the case of Lecale, the
original Celtic population intermingled with the descendants of the
Norman settlers, who, like the older native population have ever
remained true to the old faith. The preponderance of the Celtic element
in the Catholics of Ulster must be overwhelming. What is called
"Protestant Ulster" is practically a foreign importation, which the
native population never absorbed, as they did the earlier invaders.

Speaking of the Rev. Cornelius (or, as he was oftener called, Corney)