Lough Mask (Irish: Loch Measca) is a limestone lough (lake) of 22,000 acres (89 km²) in County Mayo, Ireland, north of Lough Corrib. Lough Mask is the upper of the two lakes, which empty into the Corrib River, through Galway, into Galway Bay. The lake is visited for its trout fishing. Lough Mask feeds into Lough Corrib through an underground stream.
In 1338 Sir Edmond de Burgh was drowned in the lake by his cousin Sir Edmond Albanach Bourke of County Mayo, at the end of the Burke Civil War 1333–38.
The lough was the scene of the 1882 "Lough Mask murders", when two bailiffs working for Lord Ardilaun were killed, described as "an old man and a lad". Tensions had arisen in the area during the Land War and the proximity of land managed by Charles Boycott. The corpses were found in the lough itself. The controversial lack of credible witnesses led to four well-publicised trials of the accused in 1882-83.
Famous quotes containing the word mask:
“What! Would you make no distinction between hypocrisy and devotion? Would you give them the same names, and respect the mask as you do the face? Would you equate artifice and sincerity? Confound appearance with truth? Regard the phantom as the very person? Value counterfeit as cash?”
—Molière [Jean Baptiste Poquelin] (1622–1673)