CURRAGH, a level stretch of open ground in the county of Kildare, in Ireland, famous for its race-course and its military camp. It has an area of upwards of 4800 acres; and its soft natural sward, which has never been broken by the plough, affords excellent pasture for sheep. From the peculiarity of its herbage, the district is known in the neighbourhood as “the short grass;” and the young men of Kildare are jocularly distinguished as the “boys of the short grass.” The land is the property of the Crown, which appoints a special officer as the ranger of the Curragh; but the right of pasturage is possessed by the landowners of the vicinity. The oldest mention of the Curragh occurs in the Liber Hymnorum (the manuscript of which probably dates srom the 10th century) in connection with St Bridget, who is said to have received a grant of the district from the king of Leinster, and is popularly credited with the honour of having turned it into a common. It is evident, however, £hat long before the days of the saint the downs of Kildare had afforded a regular place of assembly for the people of the south of Ireland, and the turf had already become familiar with the hoofs of the race-horse. The Aenach Colmain, or Curragh fair, is frequently mentioned in the Irish annals from the Book of Lecan downwards; and the plain appears from time to time as the scene of hostile encounters between the kings of Meath, Leinster, and Offaly. In 1234 the earl of Pembroke was defeated there by the viceroy of Ireland, Lord Geoffrey de Monte Marisco; and in 1406 the Irish under the prior of Connell were routed by the English. In 1789 the Curragh was the great rendezvous for the volunteers; andin 1804 it saw the gathering of 30,000 United Irishman. The camp was established at the time of ...

CURRAN, John Philpot (1750—1817), Master of the Rolls in Ireland, and one of the most brilliant wits and orators of his day, was born on the 24th July 1750, at Newmarket, Cork, where his father, a descendant of one of Cromwell’s soldiers, was seneschal to the manor-court. Pleased with his bright boyish vivacity and wit, the rector of his native place, the Rev. Nathaniel Boyse, first gave him lessons and then sent him to school at Middleton. At the age of nineteen he became a sizar of Trinity College, Dublin; and in 1773, having taken his M.A. degree, he entered the Middle Temple. During his residence in London he gave some little attention to the study of law, but gained far more by his assiduous attendance at the students’ debating societies. In 1774 he married a lady who brought him a small dowry; but the marriage proved most unhappy, not without fault on the part of Curran, and Mrs Curran finally eloped from her husband.

In 1775 Curran was called to the Irish bar, where he very soon obtained a practice. On his first rising in court, excessive nervousness prevented him from even reading distinctly the few words of a legal form, and when requested by the judge to read more clearly he became so agitated as to be totally unable to proceed. But, his feelings once roused, all nervousness disappeared. His effective and witty attack upon a judge who had sneered at his poverty, the success with which he prosecuted a nobleman for a disgraceful assault upon a priest, the duel which he fought with one of the witnesses for this nobleman, and other similar exploits, gained him such a reputation that he was soon the most popular advocate in Ireland....

CURRANTS, the dried seedless fruit of a variety of the grape-vine, Vitis vinifera, cultivated principally in Zante, Cephalonia, and Ithaca, and near Patras, in the Morea. Currants were brought originally from Corinth, whence their name; in the 13th and 14th centuries they were known as raisins de Corauntz. In the Ionian Islands the currant-vine is grown on the sides of the lower hills, or in the valleys, the grape-vine occupying the higher and less open and rich ground. Gypseous marls, or calcareous marls containing a little gypsum, are preferred to limestone soils, as they allow of the deep penetration of the roots of the vines. The most favourable situations are those where a good supply of water can be obtained for the irrigation of the plantations. This is carried on from the end of October to the close of the year, after which all that is necessary is to keep the ground moist. The vines are planted in rows 3 or 4 feet apart. Propagation is effected by grafting on stocks of the grape-vine, or by planting out in spring the young vigorous shoots obtained at the end of the previous year from old currant-vines that have been cut away below the ground. The grafts bear fruit in three years, the slips in about double that time. The vine-stock for grafting is cut down to the depth of a foot below the surface of the soil; two or three perpendicular incisions are made near the bark with a chisel; and into these are inserted shoots of the last year’s growth. The engrafted part then receives an application of moist marl, is wrapped in leaves and bound with rushes, and is covered with earth, two or three eyes of the shoots being left projecting above ground. In December the currant plantations are cleared of dead and weak wood. In February the branches are cut back, and pruned ...

CURRENCY. See Money.

CURRIE, James (1756-18C5), a Scotch physician and an editor of Burns, was the son of theminister of Kirkpatrick Fleming, in Dumfriesshire, where he was born. He was destined for business, and while still very young was sent out to Virginia. The outbreak of the first American war, however, changed his prospects considerably; he had a long and dangerous illness; and he still further damaged his chance of success by contributing a series of letters to an American journal, under the signature of “An Old Man,” in defence of the mother country. At last he found it necessary to leave America, and reaching home at the age of twenty, he applied himself with energy to the study of medicine. In 1780, with the object of procuring military service in Jamaica, he took his degree at Glasgow; but not obtaining the post he had in view, he settled at Liverpool, v here in 1783 he was elected physician to the infirmary. I he fatigues of Lis professional work, acting upon a hereditary tendency to pulmonary disease, forced him in 1804 to give up practice, and retire to the south of England, where he died in the following year. Among Currie’s works may be mentioned a Tory pamphlet signed “Jasper Wilson” and entitled A Letter, Commercial and Political, addressed to the Right Honourable 'William Pitt, which ran quickly through several editions; and Medical Reports on the Effects of Water, Cold and Warm, as a Remedy in Fevers and other Diseases. But he is best known for the edition of Burns, with an introductory criticism and an essay on the character and condition of the Scottish peasantry, which he undertook in behalf of the family of the poet, whose personal acquaintance he had enjoyed.