SNIPPET: Portumna, Co. Galway -- "This morning in Portleix we were to have begun a trip to the Comeragh Mountains in Co. Waterford, but since snow could be seen lying on the distant peaks of the mountains in Co. Wicklow we decided to visit the annual point-to-point meeting of the East Galways near Portumna instead. Our route lies due west, through the northern end of Co. Tipperary, pleasant rolling wooded country, with here and there a glimpse of fine estates. Then as Lough Derg and the Shannon come in sight the country becomes even more pleasantly wooded. Here in the west there is no snow, and the weather is typical Irish April, heavy rain-clouds interspersed with bursts of brilliant sunshine. The meeting too is a typical Irish point-to-point; there seems to be very little to distinguish these events, in Co. Down or Galway -- except that here the crowd contains perhaps a slightly higher percentage of oddities and "characters" than would a similar crowd in the North. A gentleman in a top-hat sings like a bird before inviting the crowd to invest in his sweepstake lottery. Then there is the inevitable philanthropist dressed as a jockey who apparently tours the country giving out winners, to a perpetual refrain of "What did I tell you?" Delightful occupation. Here he is again, as much at home in Galway as he was last year in Co. Antrim, and still moving at his priest-like task. The crowds sway and push; servant-girls from the big houses in the neighbourhood giggle as they lose their sixpences at roulette or spotting the lady. The "quality" here is to be distinguished by a certain air of genteel shabbiness; ancient riding breeches, dilapidated tweed coats patched at the elbows with leather, almost historical mackintoshes -- nobody here seems to have more than ten shillings to bet with, and everybody seems to be happy, all rubbing elbows in a crowd that contains indifferently the most ancient names in Debrett and dilapidated tinkers with no seats to their pants." -- Denis Ireland, "From the Irish Shore," 1936