Open Grief

Open Grief

Inverness Courier Wednesday January 27 1841

Scenes on the Coasts of Sutherland and Ross. Part C

“As the morning waned, every moment added to the throng that crowded the pier: party after party arrived with their friends, and the whole of the inhabitants of Helmsdale seemed to have assembled to witness the departure”. 

 

“It was a bustling yet melancholy site. The emigrants were taking leave of friends they could never expect to meet again – of a country they could never expect to see. The nervous agitated looks of the men, the short quick broken step, the conferences restlessly broken and restlessly renewed, all told of the deep agonizing they were in vain striving to overcome”. 

 

“The grief of the women was loud and open: clinging to the relatives they were parting from, they poured forth, in almost unintelligible ejaculations, their agony at leaving the glens where they were born, and where they hoped to die, mingling, in the same breath, their blessings and their prayers for those whom, although they could never more see, they could never forget: while the children stupefied and bewildered at the scene around them, clung to their mothers, and wept with them”. 

 

“But the tide served and the boatmen were impatient. An effort was made to throw some appearance of heartiness and good spirits into the last moments many were to spend on Scottish ground. Hands were wrung and wrung again; bumpers of whisky tossed wildly off amidst cheers and shouts; the women were forced almost fainting into the boats: and the crowd upon the shore burst into a long loud cheer, in which even the phlegmatic Dutchmen joined; and we were underway, while the poor forsaken dogs stretched their heads after their masters, and howled piteously”. 

Emigrants Leave Ireland by Henry Doyle 1868

 

 “Again and again was that cheer raised, and responded to from the boat, while bonnets were thrown into the air, handkerchiefs waved and last words of adieu shouted to the receding shore, while, high above all, the wild notes of the pipe were heard pouring forth that by far the finest of pibroch tunes, “Cha till mi tuillie” (we return no more)”.

 

To Be Continued…