Among the various plans that have been suggested for ameliorating the
condition of Ireland, and improving the moral and social status of her
people, I know of few better calculated to produce these beneficial
results than that of opening good lines of road through wild and
uncultivated districts, and by this means facilitating the intercourse
between the inhabitants of almost unknown regions and those of more
advanced and enlightened districts. Where this has been done, in
conjunction with other local improvements, a moral regeneration has
taken place that could scarcely be credited by those who have not
witnessed the effect. In proof of what I say, I will endeavour to give
a short account of a journey I made last summer from Cork to the
far-famed Lakes of Killarney. I had performed the same journey several
years before; but I now travelled, after passing Macroom, by a road
that had been made since my last visit, through Ballyvourney, a wild
and mountainous district, formerly impassable. The territorial
improvements there are now matter of history, it having been proved
before the Commissioners of Land Inquiry, that land, valued at 3s. 9d.
per acre, had been made permanently worth L.4 per acre by a small
outlay, which, with all expenses, rent, and interest of money, was
repaid in three years.
The land had been deep turf (peat), and all but useless for
agricultural purposes. By drainage, cultivation, and irrigation,
however, it was made to produce the finest meadow grass, sold annually
by public auction for from L.4 to L.6 per acre; and sometimes it
yielded a second, and even a third crop. The great secret of this
improvement was, that the then proprietor gave his steward, who was
likewise his relation, a permanent interest in his outlay, by letting
him the land on lease for ever. In consequence of his doing so, the
very worst land, judging by the surface, has been made equal in value
to town fields; and in the progress of this work, the wildest race
perhaps in the world, have now become a civilised and industrious
people. Mr C---- has sold his interest in the improvements for
L.10,000, calculated, on the average profit of past years, at twenty
years' purchase.
When he first undertook the work, he had every difficulty to contend
with: the people were unused to labour, and so wild and savage, that
no stranger dared to settle among them. I was told that when the first
land-steward was seen at the chapel in a dress which denoted him to be
a stranger, he heard a man behind him telling another in Irish--which
he supposed to be unknown to the stranger--the part of his neck in
which he would plant a deadly wound before he got home. The steward
fortunately understood the native tongue, and quitting the chapel
before the service was over, he fled from the dangerous place.
The present civilisation and industrious habits of the people,
compared with their barbarism thirty years ago, shews that the Irish
character, when properly directed, is as capable of advancement as any
other in the world. There was at that time no road into or out of
Ballyvourney: it was in this respect like the Happy Valley. The passes
are yet in existence, and are fearful to look at, where a gentleman
from Kenmare, on his journeys to Cork, used to bring his chariot,
accompanied by a number of footmen, and unharnessing the horses, let
it down by ropes from the top of the precipice. There is another spot
of the kind on the road from Killarney to Cahersiveen and Valentia,
where on the side of the Hill of Droum, nearly precipitous from the
sea, is the track-mark of the carriage-road, if such it can be called,
where the vehicle used to be supported and dragged by men. A new road
has since been made there: the Atlantic Ocean is so directly beneath,
that a passenger may drop a stone into it as he drives along; while
Droum Hill stands perpendicularly above him. It is a most magnificent
scene; terminating with the ruins of Daniel O'Connell's birthplace.
Visitors to Ireland usually conclude their journey at Killarney; but
if they would continue their route to Caragh Lake, Blackstone, Lady
Headley's improvements, and go on through the Pass of Droum to
Valentia and Cahersiveen, they would discover that Killarney is only
the opening to a scene of grandeur and sublimity.
Mr C---- found Ballyvourney in the inaccessible state I have
described. The people held every year, on Whitsunday, a royal
faction-fight; and for this, preparation was made almost every Sunday
in the year. They fought with deadly weapons, sticks loaded with lead,
and stones. Pensioners, who were accustomed to firearms, were hired
for the occasion; but the weapon chiefly used was a short scythe, and
men may still be found bearing its mark in contracted legs and arms:
one man having Tim Halisy, his mark; another, Paddy Murphy, his mark,
indelibly inscribed on his body. They had little or no agriculture--no
wheeled cart, and scarcely even a spade. A crop of oats was a
curiosity; and when there was such a thing, the only mode of conveying
it to market was on a horse's back. Their agricultural operations were
confined to feeding cattle, and they depended on their milk and butter
for paying their rent, and purchasing the necessaries of life. Their
mode of carrying butter to Cork was curious. I have often seen crowds
of thirty, forty, or fifty men, seated on little ill-formed horses,
which had two panniers swinging on the back, containing frequently
only a single firkin of butter in one, and a stone in the other, the
man being seated between. They fed their horses on the road-side,
never entering an inn-yard; and they generally travelled by night. No
one would trust another with his property; and on their journey of
forty Irish miles, they expended no money. The scythe was their
farming-implement to cut such coarse hay as grew in the bottoms near
rivers. On Whitsunday, whoever could keep possession of a large stone
called _Carrigun na Killeagh_, was champion for the year, and the
party to which he belonged was triumphant until the next annual
battle. On one occasion, the battle was almost ended, the champion was
possessor of the stone for nearly the prescribed time; he gave one
cheer of victory, then another, and was about to give the crowning
cheer, when a signal was made to a pensioner, who had been hired for
the purpose, and placed in ambush. He fired, and the ball pierced the
conqueror's neck, without mortally wounding him. The man fell, and
while on the ground, was seen pulling the moss and grass around him,
and stuffing them into the wound, to prevent the flow of blood, that
he might again mount the rock of victory. The next day he was seen out
of doors by the doctor, for whom his wife had secretly sent; and after
much entreaty, his determination not to allow the opposite party to
know that he had been seriously hurt was overcome, and he permitted
the doctor to examine the wound, and replace the styptics of his own
providing with more scientific remedies.
Another story of the barbarism of the people was told me on my
journey. A farmer's cow had momentarily trespassed on another man's
land, one of a hostile faction. The farmer offered to pay for the
damage, but the reply he received was a shot which killed him on the
spot. His brother, who saw the catastrophe, ran to raise the victim;
but the man had already reloaded his gun, and shot the brother dead. A
third brother, having seen the two fall, ran to the succour so
quickly, that the murderer had not time to complete the reloading of
his gun; and as a crowd was collecting, he ran off. Mr C---- used
every exertion to have him taken, and for three years was
unsuccessful; until obtaining the aid of a neighbour, a petty
chieftain of a hostile clan, he at last succeeded. On the trial, one
of the men who had witnessed the murders, and whom Mr C---- called to
swear informations, denied the guilt of the accused, swore an _alibi_,
and declared that he had on the day in question sold him a cow at a
fair twenty miles distant. He was, however, convicted, and hanged on
the spot where the murders were committed. By punishments of various
kinds--transporting the most hardened, and sending others to the
treadmill--the people were at length brought into some sort of order.
Tim Halisy was Mr C----'s right-hand man--his manager, sub-agent,
&c.: he was rich in cows and sheep; and though rather advanced in
life, he married a very young girl, who had a fortune of forty cows.
By degrees, Tim grew careless, lost his office, and resolved
henceforth to enjoy a life of luxury. His habits became deteriorated;
and during the latter years of his life, a gallon of whisky was sent
for daily to the public-house; and this was put into the milk-pails,
and the cows milked into it. Upon this sustenance, Tim and his wife
lived; they spent the whole day at home drinking, and were not known
to use bread or animal food. As may be supposed, the cows soon came to
the market one by one; and Tim and his wife, after years of misery,
died in great indigence.
In the year 1822, Mr C---- commenced his local improvements. The first
thing he did was to obtain the opening of a new line of road from
Macroom to Killarney, and another to Kenmare. In the various works
connected with these, the people first learned the use of the spade
and shovel, and became inured to a continued day's work. There was now
a possibility of carrying corn to market if grown, or of bringing it
into the parish; and Mr C---- built a mill for grinding it. He also
built an inn, and induced a coach-proprietor to run his coach from
Cork to Killarney through Ballyvourney, it being a better line in
distance, level, picturesque, and beautiful--far surpassing in every
respect the old road by Millstreet. He gave sixty acres of land for a
clergyman's glebe, built a house for him, and undertook--long previous
to the late laws--the payment of the incumbent. The Board of First
Fruits built a church, but were obliged during the work to have the
protection of the military. In a very extensive culture of turnip and
corn crops; in drainage on a large scale; in the building of capacious
farm-offices; in planting the land not of an arable quality; and
latterly, in the thinning of these plantations--all under the
direction of a Scotch steward--almost unlimited employment was given;
in addition to which, the establishment of a dispensary, the constant
residence of a valuable clergyman, a station for police, and the
intercourse carried on by the daily running of two public vehicles,
have combined to render the inhabitants of Ballyvourney as industrious
and civilised as those in any part of the British islands. They have
become a quiet and peaceable race; a riot is never heard of among
them; and the Stone of Victory has long been covered with lichen,
moss, and grass. The people annually assemble at the Holy Well, and go
their rounds at the station; and the little image of St Gobnet, in
the walls of an old church, is still looked on with adoration, and
handkerchiefs thrown up to touch it, that they may bring healing
virtue to the sick. The rector's residence is closely adjacent to the
Holy Well, the station, and the image of St Gobnet, and the stone of
victory within a few feet of his hall door. Yet he can go to bed at
night without a lock to a door, or a bar to a window. Women and girls
may be found in abundance who can thin and hoe turnips in the best
manner. As good ploughmen and agriculturists in the various
departments may now be had in Ballyvourney as in most places. All
faction-fights are at an end; and although, little more than twenty
years ago, these were the weekly Sabbath occupation, they are now like
an item of an old almanac. By employing similar means, might not other
parts of this naturally fine country be equally improved, and made the
abode of a thriving and contented people?