Walk to the Keem Mountains

Asenath Nicholson

Ireland's Welcome to the Stranger

1847

Chapter XXVI (7) | Start of Chapter

A laboring man belonging to the colony called in the evening, and hearing that I wished to visit the Keem mountains, offered to send his daughter as a guide, adding, "You are not to pay her. I know what it is to be a stranger; you have come a great distance to see our country, and we should be more than brutes not to treat you well." This was a mollifying ointment indeed; and the next morning the cleanly little miss was at the door; we had not proceeded far, when the father joined us, saying, "I was afraid my little gal wouldn't rightly understand your accent, and wouldn't well show you what you want to see, and I thought I had better follow you."

Ireland’s Welome to the Stranger is one of the best accounts of Irish social conditions, customs, quirks and habits that you could wish for. The author, Mrs Asenath Nicholson, was an American widow who travelled extensively in Ireland on the eve of the Great Famine and meticulously observed the Irish peasantry at work and play, as well as noting their living conditions and diet. The book is also available from Kindle.

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An American widow’s account of her travels in Ireland in 1844–45 on the eve of the Great Famine:

Ireland’s Welcome to the Stranger

Sailing from New York, she set out to determine the condition of the Irish poor and discover why so many were emigrating to her home country.

Mrs Nicholson’s recollections of her tour among the peasantry are still revealing and gripping today.

The author returned to Ireland in 1847–49 to help with famine relief and recorded those experiences in the rather harrowing: Annals of the Famine in Ireland.

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