ADMINISTERING RELIEF TO POOR PEOPLE--A FIGHT WITH THE LANDLORDS.
In the summer time of the year 1862 something occurred that brought
me face to face with the English landlord garrison of the South of
Ireland; something showed me the spirit of exterminating the old Irish
race, that possesses some of these landlords. Rumors reached Skibbereen
in the month of May that much distress prevailed in the islands of
Sherkin and Cape Clear--Innis Cleire--“the island of the clergy”; that
the people were dying of starvation. Special messengers from the island
waited on the Skibbereen Board of Guardians, and pressed for immediate
relief. A committee of the Board, consisting of McCarthy Downing,
Martin Jennings and James Murray, were appointed to take the matter in
hand. They resolved to send a ton of meal into the islands immediately.
The regular relieving officer, James Barry--Shemus Leathan, as he was
called--was old and infirm; it was necessary to get an active man who
would act temporarily as relieving officer, and act immediately; Mr.
Downing sent for me, and asked me to undertake the work; that a boat
with four men was at the quay that would take us in to the islands with
a ton of meal. I told him I certainly would go on such a mission. I
called on a neighbor of mine, Michael O’Driscoll, to go with me, and
he readily assented. We got the meal on board the boat that night and
next morning we set sail for the islands.
The first island I met was the island of Sherkin--that island of which
Thomas Davis sings:
“Old Inis-Sherkin’s crumbled fane looks like a moulting bird;
And in a calm and sleepy swell the ocean tide is heard.”
The boatman told us that the distress was greater in Innis Cleire than
in Innis Sherkin; that the people in the farther off island were dying
of starvation, and that it would be better for us to go on to Cape
Clear first. We accordingly decided to do so; and we decided to land
three sacks of the meal in Sherkin, for distribution there next day on
our return from the Cape.
It was a beautiful summer evening; the boat was steered into a little
shingly cove; a man was stretched on a grassy bank, as if asleep; we
called him to help us to take the sacks ashore; he turned his head high
enough to look, and lay back upon the grass again--taking no further
notice of us. I leaped ashore, and found that the man was unable to
stand on his legs; he was dying of hunger--a man named O’Driscoll, over
six feet, and about twenty-six years of age.
My wife had thought I would be out on the islands for a few days, and
she had sandwiched up as much food for me as would feed me for a week;
Michael O’Driscoll’s wife had done the same for him; we took our lunch
baskets from the boat, laid them before the hungry man, and left him to
help himself while we were landing the meal into the house of a Mrs.
Hughes near by. We made a fatal mistake; we were accessory to the
death of the starving man; he had eaten more than was good for him; he
was dead when we returned to the island next day.
We got into Cape Clear about nine o’clock in the evening. News had
reached there that we were coming. Father Collins was on the strand,
with conveyance to take the meal to his house, near by. We distributed
some of it that night; the priest sent word through the island to have
the poor people be at his house next morning to take their share of the
relief. We had supper and sleep at Father Collins’s, and next morning
before breakfast we distributed the meal.
We brought with us a gallon measure, and a half-gallon measure. A
gallon holds about seven pounds of meal, and we were to distribute
our relief as nearly as we could within the bounds of the Poor Law
Outdoor-relief regulations--giving no single individual more than three
and a half pounds of meal.
When we had supplied the relief to all that called, we had about a
hundred pounds of meal left. We decided to leave it at Father Collins’s
until we would call again, which we expected to be the following week.
After breakfast, Father Collins took us to see a bed-ridden woman who
was living in a cleft of a rock on a hill back of his house. He went
on his hands and knees getting into her house; I went in after him in
the same fashion; and there was the poor woman stretched upon flag
stones covered with heath. She could not sit up to cook the measure
of meal that we gave to a neighboring poor woman for her. Father
Collins suggested that as we had some of the meal left, it would be
no harm to give this neighboring poor woman an extra measure of it in
consideration of her attendance upon the sick woman. We acted upon the
suggestion, and gave the extra measure. I lost my job by doing so.
Further on, I will come to the story of it.
Father Collins accompanied us to the other end of the island to take
the boat for Sherkin. The walk was about three miles. We entered many
houses on the way. Some of them had flags for doors--the wooden doors
having been burned for firing. In one house were five or six children;
one of them was dead--evidently dead from starvation. I reported that
case of death to the first coroner I could communicate with when I
reached the mainland; an inquest was held and the coroner’s jury
brought in a verdict of: “Death from starvation.”
On Thursday, Board day, the following week, I gave in my report to
the Skibbereen Board of Guardians. The landlords of the islands--the
Beechers--were there. They are what is called “ex-officio
guardians”--that is, guardians of the poor by virtue of their
possessing the lands of the poor--for the O’Driscolls owned the lands
of Sherkin and Cape Clear till the Beechers came and swindled them out
of these lands, as I will show you by Irish history, by and by.
The John Wrixon Beecher who was in the Skibbereen Board room that day
that I gave in the report of my visit to the island is the Beecher that
was married to Lady Emily Hare, the daughter of Lord Ennismore. He
scrutinized every item of my report; and he asked for a postponement of
its full consideration until another Board day. That Board day, he was
on hand with all his friends; he laid hold of that item of my having
given the extra measure of meal to the bed-ridden woman; he declared it
to be a violation of the Poor Law Rules and Regulations; he proposed
that I be dismissed from the situation of temporary relieving officer;
that I get no salary for the time I served, and that I be made to pay
out of my own pocket for the extra measure of meal I illegally gave
away.
The fight on that subject continued for four or five weeks, during
which time I visited the islands four or five times.
McCarthy Downing was in a fix. He was the land-agent of much of the
Beecher estate; but his heart was with the people. I wrote to the
Guardians and the Poor Law Commissioners some letters at the time, and
in the copies of the letters before me now, I see McCarthy Downing’s
pencil-writing, toning down some expression of mine, and substituting
words of his for words of mine. I told him I would take the case into
court, and sue the Guardians for three months’ salary. He said he could
not act as my attorney, but advised me to employ Chris. Wallace or Tom
Wright. I did so, and I got a decree against the Guardians for the
quarter’s salary.
This story in my recollections will be better understood by my giving
you to read the following letters which I wrote at the time:
SKIBBEREEN, May 28, 1862.
TO THE SKIBBEREEN BOARD OF GUARDIANS:
GENTLEMEN--On Friday, the 23d inst., I left at 12 o’clock
noon, with one ton of meal, for distribution among the poor
of Cape Clear and Sherkin Islands. I arrived in Sherkin about
3 o’clock, and left seven and a half cwt. of the meal at the
house of Dan Minihane. I made arrangements to have word sent
to all the poor whose names were taken down by Mr. Barry,
that they may attend next day. I then proceeded toward Cape
Clear with twelve and a half cwt. of the meal, but did not
land before half-past seven o’clock, as the weather was most
unfavorable.
That evening and next morning I gave eleven cwt., two
quarters and eleven lbs. of meal to 81 families numbering 225
individuals. Among those are five or six farmers with families,
apparently in the greatest destitution--who would not go into
the poorhouse. In the house of one--Thomas Regan of Lisamona--a
child was dead, and from her wretched appearance I considered
she died from want and starvation. I left undistributed in
Cape Clear about one cwt. of meal. I came to Sherkin Island on
Saturday, and distributed the three sacks of meal I left there
the previous day, among 53 heads of families, and single old
infirm persons, numbering 172 individuals. About 40 were left
unsupplied with any, and I requested some of those supplied to
assist the others until I could come again. It is, of course,
possible that in discharging so urgent a duty, and so promptly,
some mistake might have been made; but I did my best.
The people appeared more wretched and distressed in Cape Clear
than in Sherkin. In both places many of them said they may not
want poor-law relief long, as they had hope that Father Leader
would return with money to get fishing gear for them, which
would be a means of affording them remunerative employment,
and permanent relief. The entire number relieved are 397
individuals, comprising 139 heads of families and single
persons.
Yours respectfully,
JER. O’DONOVAN-ROSSA.
The following is a copy of a bill I sent in to the Board of Guardians,
with accompanying letter:
THE BOARD OF GUARDIANS, SKIBBEREEN UNION.
TO JER. O’DONOVAN ROSSA, DR.
1882
To salary as relieving officer, per
appointment by a committee of
the Board of Guardians, for three
months £12 00 00
To boat hire for second week 10 00
----------
£12 10 00
GENTLEMEN--As you have appointed a relieving officer in my
place, I believe you are all under the impression that my
services are virtually at an end. As this is the day, then, for
paying the officers, I put in my bill. I have heard it said
I would get only a fortnight’s salary, though the situation
has yet involved me in five weeks’ attendance upon you, and I
believe will occupy more of my time.
If you are disposed to give me only a fortnight’s salary, I
shall claim my right to the entire three months’ salary, as
per appointment; and then, I think I can show what has so
often been talked of at the Board, that my discontinuance in
office was owing to a cry of politics gotten up against me, and
against the committee who appointed me--a cry unworthy to be
raised, where the discharge of a duty to the suffering poor was
alone involved. I remain, gentlemen,
Respectfully yours,
JER. O’DONOVAN ROSSA.
Here is a letter I wrote to the Poor Law Commissioners, Dublin, at the
time:
SKIBBEREEN, June 7, 1862.
THE POOR LAW COMMISSIONERS, DUBLIN:
GENTLEMEN--On the 22d of last month a committee of the
Skibbereen Board of Guardians requested me to go into
the islands of Cape and Sherkin with one ton of meal to
distribute among the destitute poor people there, whose
names were previously taken down by Mr. James Barry in his
application-book and report book--which names I copied. I went
with all possible haste, and distributed the meal. I returned,
and, according to the instructions of the clerk of the Union,
placed the names of the recipients on the register. He then
gave me a “statistical report book,” directing me to enter
the cases in the columns of the first section of the act. I
found that this section contained no column for many of those
I relieved; and, seeing that they were relievable under the
second section of the act, I placed them in its columns.
I was not in presence of the Clerk of the Board while doing
this; nor was I told that a resolution was passed by the Board
to the effect that none should be relieved except those coming
under the first section.
Before going into the islands I called on the clerk for
a book of instructions; but he had none. I called to the
committee; they had none. But they gave me a copy of the Poor
Law Commissioners’ circulars of the year 1848 or thereabouts.
Receiving those, to act by them as part of my instructions,
it is not to be wondered at if I relieved parties who did not
come under the first section of the act. It is true I gave a
little meal to five or six small farmers--but their families
were apparently in the most wretched state of destitution. In
the house of one, I saw a dead child, who, I believe, died
from want of the necessaries of life. _That_, a coroner’s jury
subsequently affirmed. The father of the child would not go to
the poorhouse. I gave the apparently starving family a little
meal--as I could do according to my instructions. But the lord
of the soil comes forward in the Board room yesterday, and the
previous Board day, with a statement on paper to the effect
that out-door relief was not wanted in the islands--signed by
the tenants, including the father of the deceased child--he the
lord of the soil, saying, that the relieving officer, or some
other person, must be held accountable for meal given to any
person not coming under the first section of the act.
I certainly acted in ignorance of the resolution previously
passed at the Board. And, if I knew it, it is as certain that
I would not go into the islands, fettered up in such a manner.
But I thought, from all that I had seen and heard of the
existing distress, and from the statements made by Sir Robert
Peel in Parliament, and his replies to various deputations,
that the commissioners had unlocked all the sections and
clauses of the Poor Law act, and directed the guardians of the
different Unions to avail of them, and to put on them the most
liberal construction for the relief of the destitute poor.
The clerk of the Union has returned the statistical book to me,
telling me it is not properly filled; that he cannot receive it
unless all the cases are relieved under the first section of
the act. Under all these circumstances, I respectfully refer to
you for instructions as to how I am to satisfy the clerk, or
otherwise act.
It seems I am no longer the Guardians’ Relieving Officer. They
appointed another yesterday, though the committee who appointed
me led me to understand I would hold the situation for three
months.
For the truth of that statement, you may refer to that
committee.
I would not seek such a situation; but having been requested to
discharge its duties, in a pressing emergency, I do not like to
be set aside for having done so, efficiently.
To be candid with you, I believe I incurred the displeasure
of most of the landlord guardians on account of my having
reported the child’s death to the coroner of the district, and
they immediately cried out that my appointment was political,
and resolved to cancel it. I remain, gentlemen, your obedient
servant,
JER. O’DONOVAN ROSSA.
I have made the remark that the Beechers of a few hundred years ago,
swindled themselves into the lands of the O’Driscolls in Cape and
Sherkin and other islands of “Carbery’s hundred isles.” Not only that,
but they and their descendants since, have been trying to wipe out the
old Irish stock entirely. It is not agreeable to have around you people
you have plundered, and reduced to pauperism and starvation. Doctor Dan
O’Donovan, in his sketches of Carbery, says:
“In a copy of an inquisition taken in Ross Carbery in the year 1608,
all the various lordships, royalties, rents and dues are detailed, and
the boundaries strictly defined of the country or cantred of Collymore,
called O’Driscoll’s country. It contained 65 plough-lands--39½ on the
mainland and 25½ in the islands. The names of their castles would also
indicate the flourishing conditions of the occupants, viz, Dun-na-sead,
which means the castle of the Jewels, and Dun-an-oir, the golden fort.
“Walter Coppinger had been an arbitrator in deciding a dispute
regarding landed property between Sir Fineen O’Driscoll and a relative
of his named Fineen Catharach. Coppinger got an order out of Chancery
against the heirs of O’Driscoll. Coppinger, after the justices had
issued a commission to Sir William Hull, Mr. Henry Beecher and Mr.
Barham to examine into the case, made a private contract with Beecher,
and granted him a lease of the whole.”
And so, the juggling went on, till the O’Driscolls came in to be pauper
tenants in their own lands, and the Beechers came in to be millionaire
landlords over them.