About four o'clock
That a station is an expensive ordinance to the peasant who is honored by having one held in his house , no one who knows the characteristic hospitality of the Irish people can doubt . I have reason , however , to know that , within the last few years , stations in every sense have been very much improved , where they have not been abolished altogether . The priests now are not permitted to dine in the houses of their parishioners , by which a heavy tax has been removed from the people . About four o'clock the penitents were at length all despatched ; and those who were to be detained for dinner , many of whom had not eaten anything until then , in consequence of the necessity of receiving the Eucharist fasting , were taken aside to taste some of Phaddhy 's poteen . At length the hour of dinner arrived , and along with it the redoubtable Parra More Slevin , Captain Wilson , and another nephew of Father Philemy 's , who had come to know what detained his brother who had conducted the auxiliary priest to Phaddhy 's . It is surprising on these occasions , to think how many uncles , nephews , and cousins , to the forty-Second degree , find it needful to follow their Reverences on messages of various kinds ; and it is equally surprising to observe with what exactness they drop in during the hour of dinner . Of course , any blood-relation or friend of the priests must be received with cordiality ; and consequently they do not return without solid proofs of the good-natured hospitality of poor Paddy , who feels no greater pleasure than in showing his `` dacency '' to any one belonging to his Reverence .