There is a world of difference between the present lot of the Irish
agricultural labourer and his condition in 1883, when reform in this
department was first taken in hand. Cottages can now be provided by the
Rural District Councils and let at nominal rents. Nearly nine millions
sterling have been voted for this purpose at low interest, with sinking
fund, and up to the present date 47,000 cottages have been built, each
with its plot of land, while several thousand more are sanctioned.
Of the results of the Labourers' Act a recent observer writes:
"The Irish agricultural labourer can now obtain a cottage with three
rooms, a piggery, and garden allotment of an acre or half an acre,
and for this he is charged a rent of one to two shillings a week ...
These cottages by the wayside give a hopeful aspect to the country
... flowers are before the doors of the new cottages and creepers
upon the walls. The labourer can keep pigs, poultry, and a goat, and
grow his potatoes and vegetables in his garden allotment."[*]
[Footnote *: Padraic Colum: "My Irish Year," pp. 18, 19.]